Lost in Thought
by carrotcouple
Summary: A lot of times when Mashirao fought villains, he thought about his life choices and watched his life flash before his eyes. Warning: Character Death


A lot of times when Mashirao fought villains, he thought about his life choices and watched his life flash before his eyes even though his old homeroom teacher told him a million times over that thinking that way was like asking the enemy to defeat you. Denki, his usual partner, told him that that was always the death flag in manga. But for Mashirao, it made him want to go back home as fast as possible. But this time, Denki wasn't his partner to back him up when he was in a really tight spot. Denki had gone to help out Tenya with some stakeout mission of some sort and Eijirou and Mina had laughed for hours over their drinks the day before about how Denki and Tenya were the worst candidates for discreet missions. Even Katsuki had gotten better at undercover missions.

But Mashirao was letting his thoughts wander in a fight again and he quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind just in time to dodge the axe that was swung at him. There were no objects for him to wrap his tail around and swing out of the dead end he had accidentally cornered himself into. Mashirao clucked his tongue in annoyance. The axe had already nicked his thigh pretty badly so he didn't have the luxury of moving around like he usually did.

Tooru would probably get mad at him for getting into a situation like this yet again. His thoughts often refused to shut up when he was fighting villains. It was the most lasting effect the League of Villains had left on him. Their high school class had been pitted against the group far too many times to count. And Mashirao had met so many villains who thought in different ways, some of them had sometimes sounded right, some of them had been through far too much injustice in their lives that Mashirao had nearly sympathized with a third of them.

Weakness. That's what Katsuki would say. That kind of thinking was weakness. No matter the circumstances, no matter what kind of life someone had led, it still was no excuse for hurting others, for exploiting other, for damaging others.

Tooru would tell him that it made him human though. She said people like Katsuki, Shouto and Tenya were something close to superhuman. They were gifted with steel minds and hearts and the ability to make the right decisions when absolutely needed. She would hold his face with her hands and rubs his cheeks gently with her thumbs and tell him in that sweet, serious and rarely used knowing voice:

 _"You're so human, Mashirao. More human than so many people I know and I love that about you."_

Of course both Tooru and he knew that it didn't mean that the others weren't human, that they never wavered, it just meant that Mashirao was more human - as Tooru would put it. Katsuki still called it weakness though.

Mashirao dodged the axe again and cursed himself under his breath. Instead of dwelling on pointless thoughts, he should be thinking about how to get out of the situation he was in!

If it was Izuku then he would have completely analysed the situation entirely and would have gotten out of the fix he was in in a matter of seconds. Even so, Mashirao was far more distracted than he usually was. Maybe it was because Denki wasn't screaming insults at him every ten seconds to stop him from thinking about useless things in the middle of the battlefield.

"For the love of all things holy, you're like a monkey jumping here and there and not letting me do you in!" The villain roared.

Mashirao smiled wryly. What a very Denki-like insult. He spotted a small opening on the right side and feigned going left and then used his tail to propel him towards the right. He was almost sure he was going to make it when he saw the villain's knife in his left hand come straight at him.

A dozen thoughts hit him at the same time. He would miss asking Hanta to help him paint the room he shared with Tooru five different new colors every month. He would miss Kyoka dropping in to see Tooru and blaring music in their living room at the highest volume. He would miss laughing over Yuga's overly sparkly clothes with Tooru. He would miss all of them. He would especially miss hearing Tooru singing in the shower, her humming when she was baking in the kitchen, her screeches of displeasure when she lost in Othello, her giggles when he would do something far too cheesy and sweet, her full bodied laughter when he would find her sides and tickle her, how she fit so well in his arms, how he would often miss her mouth and just litter her with kisses all over her face instead and he would miss curling up with her lazily on free days. He would miss Tooru.

"Mashirao, snap out of it!" He heard Tooru's voice shout. Mashirao broke out of his thoughts and dropped his body and felt the knife whizz past his hair. He let out a sigh of relief and then turned to the direction from which he heard Tooru's voice. He saw her trademark like gloves and shoes on top of the villain and then he saw her get flung off and out of his sight, covered by the villains large body. He heard a smack against the wall and her grunt in pain and he snarled in rage.

He was completely focused now and he wasn't going to let the villain hurt her anymore. It was over in a matter of seconds and the police arrived to take the villain away and an ambulance arrived as well to make sure no one was hurt as Mashirao helped Tooru hunt for her left glove.

"You sure you OK?" Mashirao asked her. "Maybe you should have gone with the ambulance."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just smacked into that wall pretty hard. Nothing, my back can't handle!" Tooru's voice was cheerful but strained and he could hear her short breaths.

"And I keep telling you that your costume is no good for villain fights like this! You get hurt very easily. Come on, we'll get you to the nearest hospital." Mashirao scolded her sternly. "You shouldn't have jumped in."

"And you worry far too much, as always. I was nearby and you were in trouble, of course I had to help." She giggled and then wheezed. "OK, actually, my back feels awful."

"Told you so, come on, give me your hand, I'll have you there in a jiffy." Mashirao held out his hand.

"Wait, wait. I want to walk on my own, maybe a good walk will straighten out my back." She protested, pushing his hand away with her invisible left one. "But we'll go to the nearest hospital, yes." She chuckled quietly and then hissed in what seemed to be pain. "OK, so laughing isn't such a great idea. Let's go, Mashirao." She was smiling at him, he could tell. That tone of voice always meant that she was looking up at him with what he always believed was a beaming eye smile.

"You're so difficult." Mashirao sighed in defeat. He started walking with her by his side. He walked slowly so she wouldn't strain her back. She always told him that he worried too much. But how could he not worry? He couldn't even see if she was badly hurt or in pain and so his mind always took him to worst case scenarios.

She knew he was a worry wart so she always made things seem less serious than they actually were. He didn't really worry a lot, just only when he fought villains and when it came to Tooru. Asking her out back in high school, moving in with her three years after they graduated, falling in love with her everyday and asking her to marry him five weeks ago made her more important to him everyday and he never wanted anything to happen to her. She was clumsy, cheerful and always sticking her nose into troublesome things. _How could he not worry?_

They were going to get married in three months and all their friends had promised to clear out their schedules for their wedding. Even Momo had promised to fly in from her hero trip to france just for their wedding. All the girls were currently trying to fight for the position of bridesmaid and were doing Tooru all kinds of favours.

"Hey Tooru, did you pick someone to be your bridesmaid?" Mashirao asked, turning.

Silence.

He didn't see her gloves or shoes.

"Tooru?" he called her name, looking around, a bad feeling pooling in the pit of his stomach. He started to walk back in the direction they were coming from. "Tooru? Hey, Tooru, answer me. This isn't funny. Tooru?"

Tooru was a noisemaker. She was constantly making noises to let people know she was there. But now, Mashirao couldn't hear a thing.

"Tooru, are you listening? Where are you?" Mashirao shouted. He started to pick up a run but the cut on his thigh made his leg give away and he fell face forward. Sometimes she did this. She played pranks on him at home and would sneak up from behind, trying to scare the daylights out of him or to get away with something she had done. "This isn't a funny joke, Tooru. Cut it out. Where are you?" Mashirao yelled, pushing himself up with his hands. He spotted her shoes, lying discarded. He knew that Tooru wasn't there but still his heart prayed. He rushed towards the spot and wrapped his arms around air instead of her.

He panicked.

"Tooru! Tooru, where are you?" He screamed. "I can't hear you! Where are you?" He looked around frantically. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her left glove, raised just a little because her hand was in it. He dashed forward and pulled the girl into his arms. It was then he realized she was covered in something very wet. His body chilled. It was her blood.

"...Ah...you found me...I didn't...want you to see-" she coughed, "-me...like this." She was rasping, her breaths short, strained and quiet. "Sorry..."

Mashirao didn't say a word. He shot up and ran, forcing his leg to work with him. His heart pounded in his chest, fear coursed through his veins.

 _No, no, no, no. I can't lose her like this. I can't. I just have to get her to a hospital._

"I..." She was was crying, her chest heaving, blood bubbling out of her mouth and onto his arm. "I'm so sorry, Mashirao..." She was sobbing, her small and frail body shaking in his arms. She was coughing out more blood, choking on it. Mashirao refused to listen, refused to believe. Not Tooru. He wouldn't let anyone take her away from him. Her cries suddenly died out, her body going still.

Tears filled his eyes but he kept running. He didn't believe it. She had just passed out, gone to sleep. He'd take her to the hospital and she would wake up two days later and he would cry all over her and she would laugh and apologize.

But her always warm hands were already cold.

Mashirao didn't stop running, but he couldn't stop crying either.

-o-

 **A/N - So a friend wondered if Tooru's blood would be invisible too. Well, she asked for it. I LOVED writing this. Bye~**


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